


Forgiving Ocean

by alyseofwonderland (Esyla), Esyla



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Allusions to death, Fix-It of Sorts, Kid Fic, M/M, Magic, Married Couple, Married Life, Sea Witch - Freeform, Sharks, set in the 60s
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-06 03:34:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12203076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esyla/pseuds/alyseofwonderland, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esyla/pseuds/Esyla
Summary: What if the ocean was more forgiving? What if instead of of pulling him under it delivered David to everything he has ever wanted?





	Forgiving Ocean

**Author's Note:**

  * For [proud_librarian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/proud_librarian/gifts).



> So when I first dragged my poor abused beta, Nina, into this show and fandom she instantly globbed onto Webgott. She was really sad at the end of points to find out that David Webster died out on the ocean. I said "hold my beer" and attempted to fix it. I mean that. This is me attempting to fix the actual death of a person/character. 
> 
> I don't know if it helped. Nina has been crying.
> 
>  
> 
> [ The playlist I wrote this fic to](https://open.spotify.com/user/1278199746/playlist/2KP5hCnWvKDjJiJAz5am2O)

David knows he is going to die. 

 

The water is too high. 

 

The white caps are taller than his boat. 

 

He shouldn’t have gone out tonight. 

 

As he is thrown out of the boat and is tossed in the freezing water he feels a gripping sense of regret. He fucked up so much in his life, and now he is going to die alone in the ocean because he didn’t have the balls to try and fix the things he broke when he was twenty.

 

The sea turns a vivid purple. If he lungs weren’t burning he would be awe by the colors around him. David feels himself sucked under by a current and he tries to struggle but it’s too late. His head knocks on something, maybe the ocean floor, and everything goes black.

 

<~>

 

Waking up is a surprise. David startles so badly as he gasps that he nearly falls off his boat. 

 

_ His boat.  _

 

The sails are in and there’s water on the bottom but he is still in his boat. He coughs up water feeling wrung out and a little bit sun burnt. His lips are salt chapped and he can feel the stiffness of his clothes that speak of salt water stains. 

 

He  _ didn’t _ dream falling into the ocean. 

 

He fell off his boat, this very boat. And yet here he is mostly unharmed. David shakes the last of the water out of his ears and goes to his compass and maps to try and get himself back to Santa Monica.

 

It takes most of the day to get back, with the wind in his favor. He pulls into his cove, with his dock and goes about trying up his boat on basically autopilot. 

 

The brush with death has him off center. He feels wrong in so many ways, like his skin is trying to itch off him. David knows he fell into the water and he simply cannot work out how he managed to get back in his boat. He feels this sense that there is something wrong with the universe, like all the color has shifted off by just a degree. 

 

After he ties up his boat he makes his way up to the house, following the familiar steps with none of his brain dedicated to the task. He almost died. He knows that. Maybe he should call the guys, try to fix what he broke, seeing as he is not dead. The memory of his regret as his fell into the murky depths haunts him. He can almost taste the gunpowder of his mistakes. The green of uniforms and the salt of sweat hover in his thoughts. 

 

David opens his back door and freezes. 

 

He is staring at a muck room. An honest to god muck room with a tile floor and a bench to sit at. There are hooks on the walls filled with jackets and coats of different sizes. The sandals and boots beneath the bench vary in size as well, some looking like they might be suited for a child.

 

He steps back and looks at the outside of his house. It is his house. He bought it a few years ago. The paint is still the eggshell yellow. The porch in the front is exactly the same. This back room should just be a hallways but instead it’s a muck room. He shakes his head and walks back in the door. 

 

“The coast guard is saying I can’t expect a search to turn up anything.” A voice says from further inside. David, knowing this is his house despite the remodeled back entrance walks in looking for the source of the voice. 

 

His kitchen looks almost the same as he remembers. Same cabinets and same counter leading into the living room. The difference here is that on the wall is a green phone and on the other end of that phone is Joe Liebgott, looking tired. 

 

“Chuck, I swear if they try to tell me they aren’t going to look for him I will…” Joe sighs and turns. He had been facing the wall but now he turns and spots David. His face morphs into the most joyous expression David as ever seen. 

 

“He’s here.” A pause as the other person on the line responds. David has a moment to take in the changes that twenty years have done to Joe Liebgott. His face is fuller, dark locks longer and hanging to one side but also standing up as though he had been running his fingers through it. He looks  _ older. _ Such a dumb thing. Of course Joe Liebgott doesn’t look like he did in his twenties during the war. Of course he looks more solid and less starved. 

 

“Well I’m looking right at the idiot. No he hasn’t said a damn word to me yet but he is about to get the beating of his life.” David’s eyes go wide at the sheer menace in Joe’s tone. “Just call everyone and tell them false alarm and that David is never going back on that boat again because I am gonna burn it.” Then he hangs up the phone.

 

“Hi.” David tries because what do you say to a man you haven’t seen in twenty years, who is in your house, pissed at you, and stalking towards you like he means murder. 

 

“Don’t you ‘Hi’ me. I have been up all night worried sick. The girls cried for two hours straight. I am going to fucking kill you for this shit David Kenyon Webster.” Joe stabs a boney finger right into David’s sternum. The pain of the jab is nothing compared to the sheer confusion he now feels.

 

“Oh! Aba said a swear!” Comes a small voice from the living room. David, completely startled and starting to lose his grasp on reality, turns to look at where the voice came from. Two small heads are visible in the living room now that he looks, both facing the television with volume on low. 

 

“Aba, you have to put a dollar in the swear jar.” Calls a second small voice. Joe seems to visibly lose his anger and digs into his pants for a dollar and walks back to the counter and jams the dollar into a jar that looks stuffed to the brim already. 

 

“Margaret, Yael, now that Daddy is home it’s time for everyone to go to sleep.” Joe says in a voice David has never heard. His voice is this soft and comfortable thing that David didn’t think could exist inside Joseph Liebgott.

 

The two heads turn out to belong to two small girls. The first looks a little bit like David’s sister did when she was little, with a noticeable difference of being much darker in completion. The second manages to look like a five year old girl version of Joe Liebgott, as insane as that sounds. They both have brown hair and brown eyes. The older has David’s curls.

 

He must be dreaming.

 

“Do we have to go to school?” Asks the larger girl. She looks to be about ten.

 

“No.” Joe picks up the smaller girl who clings to him willingly. The action looks ingrained in them both. “But we all need sleep and Aba needs to have a long talk with Daddy.”

 

“Oh, okay.” The older girl sighs in a put upon way that is all David, it’s like looking in a mirror. She comes into the kitchen and hugs a stunned David. “I’m glad you’re not dead Daddy.” She whispers into his chest as her small arms squeeze him. David hugs back on automatic. His heart his racing and he knows that something is wrong because this little girl thinks he is her father and he is no one’s father. 

 

The hug breaks and David smiles down at the little girl with his curls because he doesn’t know what else to do. It seems to be the right thing to do because she smiles back at him. Joe comes over and hands over the smaller girl. David takes her, still so confused but determined not to scare these children.

 

“I love you Daddy.” Says the little one in his arms. She sniffles a little and David finds himself kissing her head because that’s what his mother did when he was little. She smells like fresh powder and that soft smell of all children everywhere. His heart clenches in agony because he has no idea what is going on and this little girl loves him. 

 

He looks up from his embrace with the child to see that Joe is standing a bit apart, still looking semi murderous. There is a fire in his eyes that David remembers from the war. 

 

_ What’s going on? _

 

<~>

 

Things David knows:

 

This is his house. It’s the same address. The mail in the basket by the door is half addressed to him. 

 

The books on the shelves are mostly his, he remembers buying all of them.

 

The car in the driveway is his.

 

Things David is figuring out:

 

He lives with Joe Liebgott. Half of the mail in the basket is for Joe.

 

There is a shelf of comic books below all the literature.

 

His living room has a toy bucket filled with dolls.

 

The room he remembers being a spare bedroom has a sign on the door that reads ‘Margaret Ester’.

 

The room he used as an office has a sign in bright pink that reads ‘Yael Jean’.

 

In his bedroom there are two sets of dog tags hanging on the mirror, his and Joe’s. 

 

There is a dish on the vanity that contains a solid gold ring. A wedding band. It fits his left ring finger perfectly.

 

There are  _ pictures _ . 

 

In the hallway to the front door there are pictures, in frames. Pictures of Easy Company in uniform with guys long gone smiling back at him. A picture of David in his thirties, if he remembers his face correctly, holding a baby and smiling at the camera. He looks overjoyed holding the giggling child above his head. A picture of what has to be Margaret holding a baby Yael on Joe’s lap. Both Joe and Margaret are beaming down at the baby, neither looking at the camera.

 

There are pictures of Joe outside a barber shop with the lettering ‘Joe’s Barber Shop’ on the front window. A newspaper clipping to match the picture in the frame next to it. 

 

One picture gets him the most. It’s a wedding.  _ His wedding _ . To Joe. They are in suits and stand at the top of a ridge, the ocean behind them. David looks happy, happier than he ever remembers feeling in his entire life. Joe’s smile could replace the sun. Babe Heffron stands next to Joe looking slightly amused. Dick Winters is holding a Bible. David’s sister stands next to him laughing. 

 

David has fallen down the rabbit hole. He is in another world. 

 

He turns on the television to find the news. He watches and finds that mostly things are the same. But there are some big differences. The president is different than he remembers. David has never heard of the local baseball team.

 

The thing that gets stuck in his mental gears is the way the man reporting the news talks about two women who are married like it’s normal. 

 

This is a world where being Queer isn’t against the law. This is a world where he marries Joseph Liebgott after the war. 

 

He’s shaking when Joe comes back into the room after tucking the girls into their beds. Joe sits down next to David and leans his weight on him. When Joe takes his hand, David doesn’t fight the motion he isn’t even sure he wants to. 

 

“I swear to god David,” Joe’s voice cracks. David finds his eyes welling up with tears in sympathy to the tears on Joe’s face. “Never again. You hear me?” David nods. “You don’t get to die before me. We promised.”

 

The kiss tastes like salt water. David isn’t sure if it’s because of the tears or the flavor is still on his tongue from the ocean. Still. It’s the best kiss David has had in twenty years. The best thing he has felt since that one dark night in Austria at the end of the war. 

 

David lets Joe push him down onto the sofa. He holds onto Joe with a fierceness he didn’t know he contained as the other man climbs on top of him and begins pulling at both of their clothing. 

 

He stops shaking by the time his shorts are off and Joe stands to take off his pants. The heat of it, is nothing like his memories of this act. Joe is warmer than David remembers. There is something close to desperation but also familiarity in his touch. 

 

It’s different than his memory of doing this. The first time it had been rushed and angry and fueled by too much to drink. Then he had felt wrong, like they were doing it wrong, as if there was a better way to love another man. This feels right like that time in Austria never felt. He feels loved as insane as it sounds.

 

They rock together in an act that David has only ever read about in greek literature. He should be saying something. But he finds that in the face of the emotion in those kisses, in the face of those pictures, he doesn’t want to break this. 

 

Joe kisses him like he is something precious and important, holds him like he is worthy of love and happiness; like he didn’t ruin this in his world, like he didn’t burn all his bridges. Long thin fingers bracket his face and he looks into Joe’s deep eyes as they fall apart together, their bodies sliding. 

 

<~>

 

David lays awake in a bed that is not his own. The soft breathes of the man next to him keep his restless mind from settling. He is afraid that if he closes his eyes he will realize he is dreaming. He is afraid that if he breathes too deeply or questions this too much he will find himself back in the depths of the ocean, dying. It’s his greatest fear that this world is his mind’s last gift as his body is robbed of oxygen. 

 

Because this world is a dream. This is the world David Webster would have chosen for himself if he had the right to choose. A world where that one moment of intimacy between him and another man in the hills of Austria didn’t end in blood shed. A world where the thing his heart wanted he could have. 

 

In this world his relationship with his parents is still intact. Joe had made him call his tearful mother after sex, so she could cry over the phone line and tell him how much she loved him. In a universe where being queer was not a sin David Webster could be truly happy. 

 

It scared the shit out of him. 

 

A small voice made David turn his head to look at the door.

 

“I can’t sleep.” whispered Yael with wide yes and a trembling lip. She looks small and fragile, and yet still startlingly like Joe did in the war when he was scared. 

 

“Your turn.” Joe mumbled into his pillow and removed the arm that was draped over David. Seeing nothing else for it, David got out of the bed and lifted the girl into his arms when she reached up for him. 

 

“Let’s get you a glass of water.” David offered, he remembered his sister used to help him get a glass of water after a nightmare when he was little. 

 

The two of them get a glass of water in the dim kitchen. Yael sits in a chair and swings her legs while looking at David with a look that could peel pait. She is Joe’s daughter in every possible way. Although she taps her fingers on the counter in a way that David knows he does because of all the times his mother begged him to stop as a child.

 

He is still wrapping his head around the girls. Surrogate pregnancy. Not adoption. Margaret is biologically his daughter. Yael is Joe’s. And yet they both are a mix of the kind of people Joe and David are. 

 

“You’re not my real Daddy.” Yael says softly after looking at him for a long time. David is so startled he chokes on his water. She giggles as he coughs. 

 

“How did you know?” David manages to ask when he can finally speak again. She shrugs and kicks him in the shins with her legs. “Are you gonna tell?”

 

“No.” She shakes her head, hair swinging. “Aba was really sad and scared until you showed up.” She smiles up at him. “I’m a big girl. I can keep secrets.” 

 

David really hopes she is right.

 

<~>

 

A pillow smacks David in the face startling him awake.

 

“Daddy! Get up, Aba is making breakfast and I want you to do my hair.” For being so small Yael really is a force to be reckoned with. David gets out of the bed, confused and very much still half asleep. Thankfully the girls don’t follow him into the bathroom and instead detour back to the kitchen where there is the sounds of cooking. 

 

David goes through most of his morning routine without even really thinking about it. Brushes his teeth. Shaves his face. Gets dressed. He is sitting down at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee in his hands before his brain really finally turns on and he remembers everything that’s weird. 

 

He is awake now and still seems to be in this alternative universe.

 

Huh.

 

He had been so certain that it was a dream, some kind of pre-waking REM delusion that felt so real he believed it. Like dreaming of brushing his teeth while he was still safe in bed. 

 

Joe sets down a plate of pancakes in front of David and brushes a kiss across his head. David hums nonsensically in return. 

 

“Daddy, can we get a puppy?” Margaret asks sweetly with wide eyes and an innocent smile. David shrugs, why not.

 

“Why not,” He says pouring syrup onto his pancakes. 

 

“Aba,” Margaret turns to Joe with a smug smile, “Daddy says it’s okay.”

 

“Daddy before coffee doesn’t get to make choices.” Joe answers without even looking up, he points to a chalkboard that David had not previously noticed. 

 

On the board are written the following rules:

 

  1. Chores before ice cream
  2. Homework before radio or television
  3. Aba **MUST** put a dollar in the jar for every swear
  4. Daddy can’t make decisions before coffee
  5. Bath time before story time
  6. Big girls clean their rooms on Sunday



 

David snorts at the list. His parents had never been very hands on with raising him. There had been nannies for these kind of things. David remembers friends who had moms or dads that cared about the little things in their child’s life; it's good to know he is one of those parents. 

 

There’s a knock at the front door.

 

“I’ll get it!” Yael shouts before shooting out of her chair and down the hall at top speed. Moments later her voice calls out “It’s Uncle Pat!” She comes back into the kitchen at a much slower pace with Pat Christenson on her heels, looking resigned and amused. 

 

“Thanks again Pat,” Joe greets the other man with a slap on the shoulder. 

 

“It’s my pleasure,” Pat returns. He then turns and looks at David. “Well there’s the idiot, jesus christ, you scared us.” Pat pulls David up into a hug that feels rib crushing.

 

“Swear Jar!” Margaret exclaims pointing at Pat. 

 

“Young Lady, I did not swear,” Pat sooths as he lets go of David.

 

“Grandma says that taking her lord’s name in vain is a swear even if we don’t go to church.” Margaret finishes her point by stabbing a piece of pancake dramatically with a fork and sticking it in her mouth. Pat looks at David for help.

 

“She’s got a point,” David agress with his daughter. Pat sighs, rolls his eyes, but reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet.

 

“Don’t let them run you ragged,” Joe warns as he walks to the muck room and sits down at the bench to put his shoes on. “Girls, be good for Uncle Pat while Aba is at work.” Joe kisses each of the girls on the head. Margaret takes it with the lofty air of an older child that is considering outgrowing their parents affections but hasn’t yet crossed that border. Yael beams up at Joe and catches his cheek with a return syrupy kiss. 

 

Joe comes over, places a hand on David's face and kisses him on the lips. It shouldn’t be a surprise but David is still in shock that he can have this. Joe moves to lean away and David grabs his shirt, pulling Joe back in for a firmer kiss. David feels the tip of Joe’s tongue taste his lips, licking off the remain maple syrup. 

 

“Yucky.” Yael exhales softly from her seat. Joe laughs into the kiss and David can’t help but follow, their lips losing contact in favor of their smiles. 

 

“I ain’t kiss you too.” Pat warns as Joe heads for the front door. Joe flicks him in ear and laughs while walking away. 

 

David feels dazed. Not only because the retreating form of Joe Liebgott,  _ his husband _ , is distracting; but because this whole morning feels like some kind of insane perfect fantasy. He feels warm and light with a tingle of lips on his. He feels perfect. 

 

“Alright troopers, what do we want to do with our day off from school?” Pat asks taking a seat at the table.

 

“Library!” Margaret shouts right as Yeal squeeks “Park!”

 

“I would be interested in a journey to the halls of learning,” David offers. He realizes that he is supposed to be working, or at least relaxing today while Joe is at work, that Pat has been brought in as emergency babysitter. David knows this, but he wants to hold on to this impossible dream for a little bit longer. The smile Margaret gives him is pure sunshine on a cloudy day. 

 

<~>

 

After David gets dressed the four of them walk into town, with Yeal riding piggyback on Pat’s back.

 

“You really don’t have to do that.” David attempts to explain to his friend.

 

“This is nothing!” Pat jokes shaking Yael until she giggle in great peals of laughter. “Much lighter than a heavy gun and not even twelve miles.” 

When they get into town Pat waves David off with a promise to meet up for lunch at the pier. Then David is alone with his eldest daughter. Margaret and him walk hand in hand to the public library. She watches everything around them with big eyes and private smiles for things that amuse her. 

 

“Where do you want to start?” David asks because he knows that any child of his must have more than one section of interest. She considers this with grave importance. 

 

“Fiction.” She declares, with a small hesitation.

 

“Bold choice, I approve.” David answers with added drama. Margaret scrunches her nose up at him like she thinks he is funny but also things he is lame. It’s precious. 

 

They spend two hours looking at books. Margaret has well developed tastes already and reads above a level he would have thought a child her age would be able to achieve. She is also deeply fascinated with space and science. David didn’t realize pride could come in this many flavors.

 

The lady behind the desk tsks at the size of the stack they bring to her and then shakes her head when David realizes he doesn’t have anything to carry the books in. 

 

“Just bring this one back faster than last time,” the librarian cautions while putting the books into a bag from behind the counter. David has a brief memory of a bag like that back home, his real home the one that will sit empty until he returns. It makes his gut clench. 

 

They get lunch at a stand on the pier and the girls compare their mornings. After lunch the four walk back to the house and Pat asks if he should stay.

 

“You still look rough, Web,” He cautions, “I can stay so you can nap or just relax.” 

 

But David is determined to enjoy this so he gives his friend a hug. When he goes back he won’t have Pat. When he goes back none of these people will be his. 

 

<~>

 

Joe comes home to find David asleep on the couch. Margaret reading under his arm and Yael putting her hair clips in his hair. 

 

“Where’s Pat?” Joe asks while he washes his hands in the bathroom sink and David attempts to get all the clips out of his hair without pulling out his hair by the roots.

 

“I sent him home,” David winces as one of the clips comes away with three strands. How do the girls wear these things?

 

“I’m still going to burn the boat,” Joe promises, “So don’t think you can get out of it by using either of the girls against me.”

 

“I would never!” David exclaims. The look Joe levels him says he doesn’t believe a word David speaks, but is amused. 

 

Bed time is, an experience. Margaret doesn’t fight the bath but Yael slips out and runs nude through the house and David has to chase her down with a bathrobe. She is extremely evasive. 

 

After the great bath adventure Joe and David take turns reading each of the girls a bedtime story. Yael goes first and gets some book about ballerinas that David finds amusing but clearly Joe is long past tolerating, still Joe does a series of voices for each character. It makes David smile and his heart swell.

 

Margaret wants them to read from a series called John Carter and David chuckles when her and Joe high five at the end of battle scenes. 

 

Eventually both girls are asleep and David finds himself alone with Joe. They were alone last night but then David had been too shell shocked by what was going on. Now he understands that he is in a different world. He also knows, the same way John Carter knows, that he will have to go back to his home one day.

 

“Tell me a bedtime story,” David goes for a teasing tone, hoping Joe won't notice the warble in his voice and in his chest. Joe cackles, his head thrown back and David wants to remember what it looks and sounds like forever. 

 

“What’ca wanna hear?” Joe climbs into bed and props himself up on one arm to look at David with a soft smile.

 

“A love story,” David can feel the prickle of tears at the corners of his eyes. 

 

“Hey, now,” Joe sighs and pulls David into his chest. “We are good. The girls are good. The boat is going to burn and you are not getting back in the ocean so help me.” David laughs wetly at this. 

 

The kiss is everything David knows he doesn’t deserve. Love. Devotion. Adoration. Affection. 

 

Home.

 

<~>

 

They lay in bed and Joe tells David the story of their love, stroking work rough fingers through David’s curls. 

 

In this world David didn’t hit Joe after that first kiss. In this world, in a warm day in Austria two soldiers had their first kiss under the stars. 

 

“But of course you had to be difficult about everything.” Joe continues with a laugh. David elbows him because this is what you are supposed to do at this point in a story. In truth he just wants to gaze at the beauty of Joe. “Made me wait for you while you went back to college.”

 

“I didn’t make you do anything,” David knows this in his bones. He could never make the Joe from his world do anything he didn’t want to do. 

 

“What else was I gonna do David?” Joe asks and turns to look and him with a soft smile. “Go build a life with someone who wasn’t gonna drive me insane?” 

 

David snorts at this. He knows what life is like without Joe Liebgott and it’s not worth mentioning. 

 

“Granted that year planning the wedding is on me,” Joe admits with a small shrug. “But I still blame your sister for that fiasco with the food.” Joe continues without David asking for more information. Explains that pork ended up being delivered instead of chicken. He drifts to sleep with the sound of Joe’s voice telling the story of them.

 

David doesn’t hear Joe get up to turn off the light. He only barely registers Joe saying “I love you” into his skin as he slips into unconsciousness. 

 

<~>

 

He wakes up in a purple room. That’s wrong. It’s his room, their room, just bathed in purple light. David looks around for the source of the light and sees it coming from the windows. Joe is asleep next to him and doesn’t seem bothered by the light.

 

David puts on his loafers as he walks out of the house and down to the dock, barely feeling his feet touch the steps. The purple light is coming from the ocean. A school of fish, a vibrant brilliant shade of purple swim in a circle near the edge of the dock illuminating the night with their bioluminescence. 

 

There’s a woman sitting at the end of the dock, swinging her feet over the edge. She is waiting for him. He knows this. David gulps, pained, he knew this place was too good to last. 

 

As he approaches David can see her hair is a pale white almost the same color and texture of sun bleached coral. Her skin reminds him of a shark or a seal with a deep grey and speckled texture. She turns to look at him and her smile is all pointed teeth and black eyes.

 

“Hello my child.” She greets him in a voice that sounds too musical to come from something with so many teeth.

 

“Good Evening Ma’am.” David replies, because he remembers the old stories and his manners. Women with skin like that are not to be messed with.

 

“Have a seat David Kenyon Webster.” She pats the space at the end of the wooden dock next to her. “You have nothing to fear from me.”

 

He takes a seat next to her because there is nothing else for him to do at this juncture. He takes a few moments to collect himself. He tries to imprint the feel of the ring on his finger into his memory. He closes his eyes and thinks about the way it felt to roll over and have Joe wrap him up in an embrace. The smile on Margaret’s face. The sound of Yael’s laugh. 

 

“What are you doing?” She asks when she must notice that David has closed his eyes tightly.

 

“Trying to remember every detail of this life before it goes away.” David answers. It’s a punch to his chest. He doesn’t want to leave. He doesn’t want to go back to a world where he wakes up alone in a bed. He doesn’t want to go to a world where he doesn’t have Joe’s smile in his life.

 

“You aren’t leaving.” She answers with what could be described as a laugh. “Not if you don’t want to.” David opens his eyes and looks at the woman, really looks at her. Echoes of old tales ring in his head.

 

“Why has the sea queen granted me this?” The purple fish dance in an ever growing circle in the ocean below illuminating the two of them in the alien light.

 

“Everyone loves Dolphins, David Kenyon Webster. They draw big murals with dolphins and the colorful fish of my kingdom. Humanity loves my gentle and playful children.” She sighs and snaps her teeth. “Yet they all fear me.”

 

David has a memory then, from a year or two ago, of the massive shark he had seen. The pure beauty and majesty of the creature. How he had sketched, and tried to capture the grace of the animal in words. He remembers whispering words of adoration a the master of the ocean. 

 

“You did not fear me, David Kenyon Webster. You called me majestic.” He had, he can taste those words on his lips. Even in this form she is beyond words. “I saw your heart when you fell into my waters. I took you to an ocean where your heart could be happy.”

 

“What about…” He swallows around his dry throat. “Their David, what happened to him?” At the question the fish seem to pull in closer to the dock, shooting in a pattern that seems violent. 

 

“One of my brothers.” With the words David understood. 

 

That day he had gone out on the ocean to look for sharks. He had considered shark fishing but at the last moment had left his equipment at the house, not feeling like fighting a king of the sea that day. The David from here had made another choice. He was gone now. “Don’t fret, my child. He is now truly part of the ocean you both have loved. Come back as one of us. My gift to him. A gift for each of you.”

 

David realized, almost distantly that he was crying. He could taste his death. The death of the version of him that had got the first half of this life. The salt on his face tasted like the salt in his throat. 

 

“How do I repay you?” David asks because he remembers the old tales, never say thank you to a member of the fair folk.

 

“That book you have been thinking of writing. Finish it. Publish it. Speak of my kind often. When the time comes, fight for us. I will consider it a debt repaid.” David considers this, a life time spend in the advocacy of Sharks, he can do that. He nods. “Now live happily ever after.”

 

She leans forward as if to kiss him.

 

.

.

.

.

The kiss wakes him up. 

 

David blinks up at Joe with a soft smile on his face.

 

“If we are really quiet and fast we can have sex before the first one wakes up.” Joe whispers.

 

“I can be very quiet.” David answers with complete sincerity and joy. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [ I love making friends on tumblr, also taking prompts!](http://alyseofwonderland.tumblr.com/)
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> If you have left a kudos and don't feel like commenting [might i interest you in the edit?](http://alyseofwonderland.tumblr.com/post/165797622223/forgiving-ocean-by-alyseofwonderland-for)


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